BRIXMIS

The British Military Mission, created by treaty, allowed American and British occupation forces in Germany to move freely throughout the country for the purpose of observing the 400,000 Soviet troops stationed in the Soviet zone. Although the teams were small, amounting in total to just 32 unarmed officers and men, equipped with cameras but no radios, they roamed at will, limited only by “temporary restricted areas,” which had to be announced. By declaring such an area along the frontier with Poland in 1981, the Red Army attempted to exclude the BRIXMIS cameras and thereby inadvertently drew attention to armor and troops assembling in anticipation of an invasion.